Research shows that adolescents’ performance in school can be negatively affected by depression and anxiety. However, past studies have used nonspecific measures of depression and anxiety that preclude researchers from understanding their unique effects. The current study addressed this gap in the literature by teasing apart the effects of depression specific and anxiety specific symptoms on end of semester grade point average (GPA) and the likelihood of dropping a course. We used a 3-month longitudinal design with a sample of 130 United States (U.S.) undergraduates. Results showed that only cumulative GPA and ACT score predicted end of semester GPA. However, high levels of anxiety specific (anxious arousal), but not depression specific (anhedonia), symptoms predicted whether or not a student dropped a course. These results suggest that targeting anxiety specific symptoms in schools may be effective in improving academic outcomes.

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Tests of generalizability can diversify psychological science and improve theories and measurement. To this end, we conducted five studies testing the cognitive vulnerability to depression hypothesis featured in the hopelessness theory of depression: Study 1 was conducted with Honduran young adults (n = 50); Study 2 was conducted with Nepali adults (n = 34); Study 3 was conducted with Western hemisphere adults (n = 104); Study 4 was conducted with Black U.S. adults (n = 119); and Study 5 was conducted with U.S. undergraduates (n = 110). Results showed that cognitive vulnerability could be measured reliably in diverse populations and the distribution of vulnerability scores was similar for all samples. However, the tendency to generate negative inferences about stress had different implications for depression depending on sample; the association between cognitive vulnerability and depressive symptoms did not generalize to Honduran and Nepali participants. It is now necessary to understand why a negative cognitive style confers risk for depression in some contexts but not others (e.g., is it issues related to measurement, theory, or both). The results also suggest that understanding and reducing the global burden of depression will require more than simply “translating” existing cognitive measures and theories to other countries.

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